Charlotte Clarke

Charley Clarke is a Principal Consultant at Itad where she leads our Impact Investing and Innovative Finance portfolio of work.

Charley has over 15 years’ experience in international development with a particular focus on private sector development, impact investing and innovative finance, governance, civil society and accountability, and economic reform. She is directing the Evaluation of the Dutch Good Growth Fund, Argidius Foundation evaluations. She is the Research Manager for Itad’s longitudinal Impact Evaluation of Commonwealth Development Corporation’s investments in Africa and South Asia, and led the impact audit for Nesta Impact Investments.

Her academic background is in Environmental Management and planning, with undergraduate and postgraduate degrees from Nottingham University.

Project Experience:

2018

Intellecap’s direct support to ventures in East Africa(Argidius Foundation ) - Project DirectorIntellecap combines advisory services, capital and networks, providing early stage impact ventures with a continuum of support through their life-cycle. Intellecap’s direct support to impact ventures in East Africa covers investment readiness support, showcasing enterprises during the Sankalp Forum, celebrating their success stories and helping to attract capital for these enterprises, and facilitating investment from investors.

Itad has been appointed by Argidius Foundation to conduct an evaluation these services provided to enterprises over the period 2016-2017. The evaluation will assess the relevance of the services to enterprises and investors and Intellecap’s contribution to short and longer-term outcomes and how the investment readiness services are positioned within Intellecap’s ‘ecosystem development’ mission.

2018

Evaluation of GrowthAfrica’s support to ventures in East Africa(Argidius Foundation) - Project DirectorGrowthAfrica is a foundation formed in 2002 which aims to see economic growth and social transformation accelerated through strengthening support to entrepreneurs. GrowthAfrica focuses on providing business acceleration services, strategic advice and access to investments to early-stage enterprises (ESEs) in Africa. It seeks to provide ESEs with the necessary tools, skills, and access to individuals and organizations which will help them remove obstacles for growth and achieve moderate-to-significant scale.

Itad was appointed by Argidius Foundation (GrowthAfrica’s funder) to conduct an evaluation to assess the results of GrowthAfrica’s support to ESEs in 2016-2017. We are currently in the implementation phase of this assignment, collecting and analyzing data to assess the contribution of GrowthAfrica to successful outcomes, short and medium-term effects, and seeking to understand the key factors influencing results. Our findings will be presented in our evaluation report which will also provide a set of recommendations towards enhancing GrowthAfrica’s services and contributing to the sector-wide evidence base on what works in business development services.

2017 - 2027

CDC Longitudinal Study(The CDC Group) - Research ManagerThe CDC Group plc is a Development Finance Institution (DFI) wholly owned by the UK government. Its mission is to support the growth of businesses and infrastructure development throughout Africa and South Asia to create jobs and make a difference to people’s lives in some of the poorest areas of the world. CDC invests its own capital through funds, private equity and debt instruments, as well as providing technical support. The purpose is to achieve development impacts, mobilize other sources of investment, and demonstrate to broader capital markets the importance of investing in fragile and frontier markets.

Itad, in association with the Institute of Development Studies (IDS), IPSOS and Open Capital Advisors (OCA), is conducting a ten-year study to systematically analyze the mobilization of private investment by CDC. The research study is expected to generate robust evidence and learning to support DFID and CDC to better understand the contribution it makes to direct and indirect capital mobilization. The study builds on the methodologies of OECD and the IFC to measure mobilization and demonstration effects, as well as conducting investor sentiment surveys and a macro-economic analysis. The study has a one-year inception phase (2017 to 2018) followed by nine years of implementation (2018 to 2027).

2017 - 2019

Evaluation of Impact Hub’s Latin America Scaling Programme(Argidius Foundation) - Project DirectorImpact Hub (IH) is a global network of entrepreneurial communities, places, and programs that inspire, connect and catalyze impact. From Amsterdam to Caracas and Accra to San Francisco, IH is rapidly expanding, with over 15,000 members in more than 80 cities in 42 countries. IH Latin America (LAM) is a network of innovation labs, business Incubators and social enterprise community centers supporting small growth business development and facilitating links to impact investors. A key component of the project, developed with support from Argidius Foundation, is the Scaling Program which identifies specific intervention points to help grow and scale social enterprises.

Itad has been commissioned to conduct an external evaluation of the LAM Scaling Program to assess the IH’s acceleration services and based on the findings provide a set of recommendations and lessons that will enhance IH’s services and contribute to the sector-wide evidence base on what works in business development services. At present, the IH LAM Scaling Program is under implementation and is expected to be completed by May/June 2018. The evaluation will be conducted in two parts: first a Results Measurement (RM) System Review while the program is being implemented, and then an ex-post evaluation in 2019. In the RM review stage Itad is providing support to IH to develop a Theory of Change and strengthen their RM framework such that IH collects the right data for management monitoring and the 2019 evaluation.

2017 - 2018

Evaluation of Enclude’s Variable Payment Obligation (VPO) Programme(Argidius Foundation) - Project DirectorEnclude is an advisory firm dedicated to building more sustainable small growth businesses (SGBs) and institutions by offering the integrated capacity and capital solutions that power economic growth, enterprise profitability and social transformation. Enclude, supported by the Argidius Foundation, established the Variable Payment Obligation Program (VPOP) in 2015. This is an innovative market driven initiative that aims to address SGBs’ lack of access to formal financing. The program provides cashflow based financing through a commercial bank partner, alongside Enterprise Growth Services (EGS) to SGBs with ambition to grow to help them with access to right-fit finance, and to increase their skills and knowledge.

Itad was appointed to conduct an external evaluation to assess the results of the Enclude VPOP pilot phase with an emphasis on the contribution of the VPOP pilot to successful outcomes, short and medium-term results, and factors that have positively and negatively influenced results. The purpose of the evaluation was to provide an objective assessment of the services provided to SGBs through the program, and based on the findings provide a set of recommendations and lessons that will enhance VPOP, and contribute to the sector-wide evidence base on what works in business development services. The evaluation was well received by Enclude and Argidius Foundation, and the results have been used to guide the scale up of the pilot in Nicaragua and other Latin American countries. Itad in partnership with Argidius Foundation, is now working towards producing the report for external publication and learning in the SGB sector.

2017 - 2018

Impact Audit of Nesta Impact Investments(Nesta Impact Investments) - Team LeaderThe Nesta Impact Investment Fund (NIIF) is a £17.6m venture capital fund managed by Nesta Impact Investments (NII) that invests in innovative, high-growth businesses seeking to address social challenges in the UK. NIIF has three investment focus areas: education, health and communities. After five years of investment experience, NII has refreshed its approach to managing and measuring social impact. Based on lessons learned over the years they expanded their approach of impact risk and built a more structured and consistent approach to assessing impact across the portfolio.

Given this important stage in its lifecycle, NII commissioned an ‘impact audit’ to further cement NII’s commitment to rigor and transparency. Itad was selected to conduct the audit. The impact audit report was well received by the NII team, and Itad is now working towards producing the report alongside NII’s management response for external publication and seeking relevant impact investing industry events to publicize and discuss the value of the report to NII and the sector as a whole.

2015 - 2021

Evaluation of the Dutch Good Growth Fund(Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs) - Qualitative Methods and Design Framework LeadItad, in partnership with SEO Netherlands, is designing and implementing the impact evaluation of DGGF, a direct funder, and fund-of-impact funds investing in small, medium enterprises in developing countries globally.

BEAM Exchange(DFID, SDC) - M&E ConsultantItad is leading the monitoring and evaluation (M&E) spoke for BEAM, which aims to build the credibility of the market systems approach by strengthening the evidence base of its impact, and to support practitioners to improve implementation by generating and responding better to information on the effects of their interventions.

Activities: Quality assurance and support to the design of Monitoring and Results Measurement framework and tools.

2015

Digital Jobs Africa Monitoring and Learning 2015 Grant(Rockefeller Foundation) - Team LeaderTeam Leader for the Monitoring and Learning team which aims to test the value proposition of RF’s support to grantee training, business process outsourcing, and awareness raising organisations in facilitating links between disadvantaged youth to digital jobs in six countries in Africa: Kenya, Nigeria, South Africa, Ghana, Morocco, and Egypt. Responsible for the design of M&L framework, workplans, client liaison, lead on interviewing and write up of stakeholders to test barriers and enablers in institutional, policy environment, lead on authoring quarterly monitoring reports and in depth thematic studies.

2014

Skills Project Review and Design(Swisscontact, Nam Theun 2 Power Company) - Team LeaderProject description: The Nam Theun 2 Hydropower Project, or simply NT2, is a hydroelectric dam located on the Nam Theun River in Laos. Commercial operation of the plant began in March 2010. 6,300 people from 17 villages moved from the area that became the NT2 reservoir on the Nakai Plateau to custom-built villages built in consultation with the resettled communities. Nam Theun 2 commissioned a review of their support to communities livelihoods development activities through training interventions, and recommendations for design of options for future support during the concession period.

Activities: Led design team for Rapid Market and Needs Assessment (RMNA) in areas of new settlements relocated by the Nam Theun 2 Power Company, including trades most in demand for labour and opportunities for self-employment, skills profiles of villagers, and market analysis; Rapid Assessment of tourism potential in the source areas of Nakai-Nam Theun National Biodiversity Area; and Recommendations for potential skills and market development interventions in medium and longer term.

2013

Australia Indonesia Partnership for Justice (AIPJ)(DFAT, Indonesia) - Project ManagerProject description: The Australia-Indonesia Partnership for Justice (AIPJ) is governed as a genuine partnership through a Working Committee comprised of representatives of the Indonesian planning ministry and the Australian aid program. The working committee is informed by a Partnership Board comprised of Indonesian and Australian heads of justice institutions and civil society leaders. The AIPJ team is funded through the Australian aid program (A$50m from 2011-2015) but relies extensively on resources provided by the Indonesian Government, the Courts and civil society organisations committed to justice reform and improved services for the poor.

National Village Development Programme Support Services(DFAT, Timor Leste) - Project ManagerProject description: PNDS is a Government of Timor-Leste funded/ AusAID advisory-supported scheme to facilitate and finance community driven development of small scale infrastructure.

Climate Resilient Infrastructure Development Facility(DFID, South Africa) - Senior Programme ManagerProject description: The Climate Resilient Infrastructure Development Facility (CRIDF) aims to catalyse the development of water infrastructure construction and management projects that increase the ability of communities, policy makers and planners to cope with scenarios of climate change whilst optimising the water, food security, carbon and energy nexus.

Activities: Short term Senior Manager responsible for programme systems development and workshop facilitation for scale up of the 11-country regional Climate Resilient Infrastructure Development Facility designed to prepare climate resilient transboundary infrastructure projects for financing by private investors or International Finance Institutions. Designed stakeholder engagement, anti-corruption, risk management, operations management, and governance/management arrangements.

2010 - 2013

Enabling State Programme(DFID, Nepal) - Project ManagerProject description: The Enabling State Programme (ESP) was established to strengthen state capacity to respond more effectively to the interests of the poor and excluded, and also includes the multi-donor (AusAID, Danida, SDC and Norwegian Embassy) Rights Democracy and Inclusion Fund: http://www.esp-nepal.org.np/.

Support to the Milk and Dairy Sector Programme (Sida, Giorgia) - Project ManagerProject description: The Support to the Milk and Dairy Sector programme aimed to reduce poverty by increasing income for both women and men in the rural areas of Kekheti and Tskhinvali regions, primarily for those engaged in milk and dairy production on small and mid-size farms: Organise and support farmers, processors and entrepreneurs in increasing both quantity and quality of milk, and their means of processing and selling their products; Develop a sustainable organization structure (in co-operation with commercial dairies in Tbilisi), to inform and encourage the wider public to consume more and safer milk products; and Provide assistance to the Ministry of Agriculture to shape and fine-tune food safety policies and strategies, especially related to the milk and dairy sector.

Activities: Management support, advised on integrating the Sustainable Livelihoods Approach into programme M&E to broaden assessment of community development beyond income indicators.

2009 - 2010

Ulusaghe Women’s Association Livelihoods Project(HMG British High Commission, Solomon Islands) - AdviserProject description: Ulusaghe Women's Association is a CBO established to represent the interests of women in Western Province, Morovo Lagoon.

Activities: Advice to the Association founder and development of funding proposals to the British High Commission and Rotary International for a livelihoods Programme. Supported the founder establish and register the Association, develop promotional and information materials, scope out activities in subsistence and market oriented household horticulture in partnership with local horticulture and market development NGO 'Kastom Gaden'.

2008 - 2010

RAMSI Governance Support Facility(DFAT, Solomon Islands) - Economic Governance CoordinatorProject description: The Regional Assistance Mission to the Solomon Islands (RAMSI) is a Pacific Islands Forum-led post-conflict state building intervention, initiated in 2003. The Governance Support Facility was established in support of designing and implementing institutional reform activities.

Enterprise Challenge Fund(DFAT, Solomon Islands) - EvaluatorProject description: AusAID competitive matching grant programme to support medium/large businesses in the Asia-Pacific region to share financial risk for projects designed to contribute to improving livelihoods of poor men and women.

Activities: Recommended adjustment to M&E Framework for grantees (cocoa company, poultry producer) to ensure poverty and social inclusion outcomes accommodated, verified baseline and target data through interviews and site observation visits, produced mid-term M&E report. Reviewed effectiveness of Fund marketing campaign and quality of services to support development of Concept Notes and Applications; collated lessons learned.

2007 - 2008

Scholarship Programme(Council for Australian-Arab Relations (CAAR) of Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT), Australia) - Project Manager Project description: CAAR scholarship programme funding postgraduate students from the 22 countries and territories of the Arab League to study short term professional postgraduate courses that would contribute to enhancement of Australia's economic, cultural and social relations with the Arab region.

Activities: Management of the successful tender; finance and administration, client and education institution liaison; procedures for advertising for and selection of scholars, ongoing coordination of pastoral care for students in Australia, regular monitoring and reporting to CAAR. Commendation received from DFAT.

2007 - 2008

Timor Leste Justice Sector Support Facility(AusAID/DFAT, Australia/ Timor Leste) - Project CoordinatorProject description: The East Timor Justice Sector Support Facility aims to create stability and prosperity in East Timor, with the objective of fair and timely access to justice for men, women and children. Component 1: Creating corporate management support for core justice institutions, building their capacity to carry out management and administrative responsibilities. Component 2: Strengthening the capacity of civil society to demand improved access to justice for vulnerable groups. This encompasses activities to achieve gender equality, improved human rights protection and anti-corruption, transparency and accountability.

Activities: Management of tender, start up and support to the A$28m programme. Member of design team of the M&E Framework to measure outcomes of complex Facility rolling design, using Most Significant Change tools.

Statutory Environmental and Social Impact Assessment(Lao Cement Industries, Laos) - ESIA Specialist, Social Impact AssessmentProject description: Environmental and Social Impact (ESIA) of a planned industrial cement project in Khammouane Province, Laos, specifically assessments of macro/micro, positive/negative, potential/actual and direct/indirect social, cultural and environmental asset impacts as part of Statutory compliance requirements of LCI to the Government of Laos via the Science Technology and Environment Agency

Activities: Managed the planning and implementation the ESIA of a planned cement project, including design and management of the workplan, consultant ToR design, recruitment and management; implementation of field work; and production of the ESIA report and Management Plan incorporating Laos policy and legislation, ADB Environmental Assessment and Resettlement Guidelines, and research on ESIA best practice. Used varied tools such as household surveys, Participatory Rural Appraisals, gender disaggregated focus group discussions; forest transect walks, GPS village mapping, and assessment of market value for replacement of tangible assets. Liaison and engagement with key stakeholders: Provincial Department of Geology and Mines, and Science Technology and Environment Agency (STEA); INGOs representing the interests of the local communities, and providing support services to communities in HIV/AIDS awareness and mitigation; and local communities. Managed and compiled the ESIA Report, Management/Mitigation Plan and Community Engagement Plan, including recommendations for the cement company on offering job and training opportunities, to support livelihoods activities such as fisheries, steps to manage and mitigate environmental impacts.

Activities: Managed a national survey of the demand for and supply of rural and microfinance services by formal and semi-formal sources, undertaken as component of a PPTA for a planned Asian Development Bank loan-funded programme to strengthen and restructure the rural and microfinance sector of Laos. National household survey, including survey of informal moneylenders; and survey of financial services providers including INGOs, state-owned and commercial banks, MFIs, supplier credit. Drafted guidelines for subsequent rural and microfinance surveys. Organised stakeholder workshop for development of rural and microfinance strategy.

2002 - 2003

Environmental Management System and Environmental and Social Report(BP, UK) - Project CoordinatorProject description: Corporate Social Responsibility initiative to report environmental and social impacts of major international BP sites using the Global Reporting Initiative reporting standard.

Activities: Coordinated two new online BP Group internal environment and social reporting projects. Submitted for MSc Environmental Management thesis, designed EMS for BP International Retail business unit, to be accredited to ISO 14001.

Publications:

New frontiers for evaluation in an era of market-oriented development (2015)United Kingdom: Wilton ParkClarke, C., Barnett, C. and van den Berg, R.

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